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The Vutch

The Vutch number about ten thousand total, with about a third of that actually living in the 'Vutch isles' which are a small subtropical volcanic archipelago that is rather marginal for most agriculture. Fish and shellfish is the staple of the diet, although they can also usually squeeze out a crop of sweet potatoes, garden vegetables, and assorted sea plants that comes out to about half the size of a Threshold rice crop. This increased protein intake appears to lead the Vutch to be more reliably hearty than their neighbors, even to the point of handling the baneful influences of shadowlands somewhat better than the average human. Government is by village and chiefdom, with a general council of chiefs responsible for maintaining the small port village and generally keeping the peace. The Vutch islands have had the happy chance of not seeing any internal strife that went beyond family feuds within their recorded history. They are semi-literate; historical summaries are often carved into durable wood objects and used as prompters for storytellers, and reading of maps and nautical charts is quite common.

The Vutch have some notoriety as a sailing people, and a lot of large ships have a Vutch on board in some advisory capacity; however, they have never seemed terribly good at accumulating wealth, so a Vutch-owned ship is generally small and scummy-looking, if well maintained in proper situations. "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

The Vutch local religion is based around several enigmatic spirits which are not connected to Wyld taint, but who do induce perceptual distortion as part of their standard religious rituals. They also revere gods of the sea and fishing, as is normal. Unusually, they also revere the toilet; more properly, where other persons would put the household god in the altar or in the kitchen, they place it in the toilet. "Talking shit," of course, has a somewhat different meaning to the Vutch. Culturally they are rather similar to the Standard Western Pattern, although they seem pretty relaxed about "lapsed" Tya.

Vutch music is strongly rhythmic and is more chant-like than conventionally musical. The general Vutch ritual of cultural recognition and solidarity is the clenching of one hand into a fist and tapping knuckles with the other person.

The Vutch are almost singularly free of direct influence from the Exalted. There is no known relation to the blood of the Terrestrials among the population, or at least no Terrestrial Exaltation has happened within their recorded history. Sidereal Exaltation is unknown but unlikely given the relatively small home population. The diverse food sources and comfortable climate of the Vutch islands prevent sufficent challenge to bring them to Luna's eye. The only known Solar Exalt is the young Jan Vutch, who slew a V'neef and their detachment who had come to try and claim the "new discovery"; while it is not inconcievable that there is an Abyssal who came from the Vutch population somewhere in the West, he or she has not made this known.

The only major spiritual feature of the islands is a level 2 Water manse of uncertain age and extremely simple, almost deliberately spartan construction in the second largest of the Vutch islands, whose Hearthstone is the Seafoam Crest Tear, granting the agility of the ever-moving waterways. There are, naturally, the usual complement of spirits.

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I updated this somewhat because I thought I should. HI BrilliantRain YELL AT ME IF I SCREWED IT UP

Most of this was not deliberate on my part, but looking at the Vutch history, they're WEIRD... they're widespread through the West without really being conqueror or conquered, have a fairly stable population and home base, no direct connection to the varying fortunes of the Exalted, and are not particularly wretched. Unless someone tripped over them they wouldn't really suffer much from much of the woes of Creation, unless Creation as a whole collapsed; even the failure of seafaring nations would simply reduce their capacity for trade and the general standard of living. And they have that weird Manse sitting right there.

I can think of several possibilities (one of which may become canon in our game!):

• Some past Solar made a vacation home with his concubines in a nice island chain that he liked the looks off, manipulated it to look better, and got to maxing and relaxing. Later he died in the Usurpation and the home was too remote for the Realm to bother with, leaving a small cluster of somewhat ignorant Golden Children to revert to standard humanity, maintaining only a small tithe of the blessing of the Sun.
• The Vutch are the pet population of a deity of some kind (perhaps the Resplendent Madam of Tropical Ease) who have engineered the local faith to their benefit and have otherwise left them alone.
• They are someone's information network, possibly unwittingly. Even just KNOWING the placement of every Vutch would give you a rough idea of the location of most large naval exercises. It might (for some reason) be easier to locate every person in a tribe than to use some other method of prognostication.
• Some clever Solar planned ahead, leaving his future incarnation (engineered somehow, possibly by bribing Lytek or realizing the laws of very large numbers) with a widespread contact network and a high-quality home base, possibly replete with hidden wonders!
• (the bad one) The Vutch, as a group, represent the free and honest heart of the Silver Prince. The Silver Prince may be destroyed if every Vutch or descendant of a Vutch, to the third generation, is killed. They are silently watched by the dead.

There are probably other possibilities.

Inspirations for the Vutch came from Mugen's background in Samurai Champloo, as well as a bit of reading into Ryukyuan religious practice. The islands themselves may well bear some resemblance to those found in Hale nochi Guu. Their cultural gesture, of course, is "respect knuckles", an occult gesture of no small renown. - JanVutch - he's from around here, you know

Looks good to me. Naturally I will refrain from making known which of the reasons is actually true. Muhuhaha. It's good to be the ST.
--BrilliantRain